No.3 retirement village operator in the NZ market, Summerset, has seen its sales in actual retirement village unit numbers jump by 47% this calendar year over last. In nine months they have sold 432 retirement village units with 243 of these being new retirement village stock.

With this volume Summerset is now forecasting an underlying profit of between $36 and $39 million compared to $24 million last year.

To put this in perspective, Summerset is generating this profit from just 20 retirement villages (most co located with aged care) in a country with one fifth the population of Australia. Retirement village operator Aveo reported an underlying profit of $53 million for 12 months from 46 owned and 29 managed retirement village (total 75).

This demonstrates the superior financial model of co located retirement villages with care plus the deep acceptance of retirement village accommodation that NZ operators have been able to build in a relatively short period – approximately 10 years.